Colina’s joy was evident when he said, “We came here to be part of the podium. Today we played our best game and against Uruguay we played outstandingly.”

Pocitos, Uruguay, February 25, 2013 – Three days of great beach volleyball in Pocitos, Montevideo, Uruguay finished with Brazilian duo Elize-Fernanda taking home the women’s gold medal and Venezuela’s Henriquez-Colina the men’s. Sixteen men’s teams and 15 women’s participated in the South American Beach Volleyball Circuit stop at the Arenas del Plata Stadium at the Pocitos resort in the capital city of Montevideo. There were six Uruguayan teams in each gender.

The women’s final between Argentina and Brazil got off to an interesting start with Brazil’s blocking definitely its best weapon. Argentina tried to do its best but with Elize serving, Brazil got a three point lead allowing the team to win 21-18.

In the second set Brazil got an important lead of four points 7-3 but Argentina showed its might with Zonta blocking and digging to equal the score 7-7. A block from Gallay put Argentina in the lead 12-11 but Brazil recovered and after a fighting for each point Elize-Fernanda secured victory with a score of 29-27.

In her remarks after the match Elize said, “Argentina has a great team and it was a hard match, but this time we played better. We have been playing together for three months, we are friends and that helps us in the field. We are very happy playing together and as I have greater experience in beach volleyball, I talk a lot. She (Fernanda) is a great athlete and likes to learn, to train and that helps me.”

In the men’s competition, Chilean cousins, Marcos and Esteban Grimalt took the first semi-final 2-0 (21-15, 21-16) against Brazil’s Daniel-Leonardo, Venezuela’s Jackson Henriquez--Leonardo Colina won their semi-final match against Mauricio Brizuela- Luis Riveros from Paraguay. The Paraguayans had defeated the host team of Rodriguez-Williman in the quarter-finals.

The men’s final between Henriquez-Colina from Venezuela and Chile’s Grimalt cousins ended with a 2-0 win (22-20, 21-14) for the Venezuelans.

The Venezuelan duo got off to an early start on account of their excellent spiking and took the first two point lead 18-16 with a dig from Colina that saw the ball finish on the other side of the net. Chile recovered 19-19 but Venezuela managed to close the set 22-20. Henriquez-Colina managed to get a quick lead in the second set with Henriquez serving. They managed to widen the point difference against the cousins who made some non-forced errors. Although the Grimalt cousins fought valiantly they were unable to the close the gap.